HARTFORD -- Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin announced an agreement that could restart construction at Dunkin Donuts Stadium soon with the beginning phases starting Wednesday.
Arch Insurance has entered into an agreement with architecture firm Pendulum, the City of Hartford said in a statement Tuesday.
Pendulum will be charged with finishing the ballpark, since the original developers, DoNo Hartford LLC and Centerplan Construction were fired.
“Despite all the distractions, threats, and gamesmanship, we’ve stayed laser-focused on getting Arch Insurance to take over construction of the ballpark, because it’s the best result for Hartford and for Hartford’s taxpayers," Mayor Bronin said. "Arch has not yet taken full responsibility, but by formally engaging the architect, they’ve taken a significant step forward in that direction.”
The Yard Goats have been playing their inaugural season on the road all year and will finish out the rest of the season away.
Arch Insurance has been conducting an investigation since early this summer to determine what role they will play in completing the project.
"As part of the agreement, the City of Hartford will wire $247,422.88 to Pendulum for past invoices that DoNo LLC had not paid, and the City has reserved all of its rights to seek reimbursement from Arch and from DoNo LLC for the advance of these funds," said Bronin.
Meanwhile an attorney for Centerplan Construction maintains his company was dismissed without merit. The lawsuit filed by the developers against the city continues.
Attorney Raymond Garcia sent the following statement to FOX 61:
The fact that the amount of money the City paid (not Arch by the way and the City has no contract with the Architect) is so large and the anticipated work undefined indicates clearly that the design work for the ball park is not complete and NO one could finish the job because of the state of the Architectural work.
Arch engaged the Architect because Arch has to determine the scope of work that must be completed as part of its investigation. To our knowledge, Arch has not committed to do anything except complete its investigation. Unless and until the Architect finishes the Construction Documents Centerplan could not finish the Construction.
Coupled with the fact that the City still does not have enough money to pay for what it does not dispute there was no way Centerplan could have finished the work, and no justification for the termination.
City officials haven't said when formal construction would start, but are confident it will be soon.
